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Musician to front YouTube tour

A MUSICIAN from Brentwood is fronting a national tour featuring performers who have been a hit on YouTube, but not in the recording studio.

Dave Giles will be heading the Upload Tour 2 which is seeing singers and bands taking the stage at venues including the O2 Academy in Islington, Cockpit 2 in Leeds and Bewley’s Theatre in Dublin.

Out of the ten dates lined up, five have already sold out with other acts, Bribry and Eddplant, performing.

The tour will be the second of its kind following another one earlier this year and comes from an idea Dave had to promote artists getting web hits on the internet.

Having played at a similar concert at last year’s Reading Festival, the guitarist from Brentwood said the gigs will give an opportunity to musicians struggling to get a break in the industry.

Dave said: “All the artists involved with the tour either haven’t chased or had any luck getting such a deal, so each started to build their own fan bases and do things on their own.

“YouTube is the perfect platform for this. It enables an audience to decide if they like what you’re doing, and to connect with you.

“Through collaborations and regular content, a very loyal fan base has been built up.”

Dave went on to say he believes the way sites like YouTube operate to help musicians without record deals get noticed has a real future.

“I think the industry is constantly evolving and the beautiful thing about it is there are no rules,” he said.

“Just because one person builds a fanbase on YouTube doesn’t mean everyone has to do it this way.

“The old school methods of going out on the streets still can work as well. All that is apparent is that if you’re willing to work really hard and have some talent then there’s no reason you can’t do it all yourself.”